Planning new staffing software? You will want to avoid these 7 ways to mismanage the process. These ways to mismanage the process will help you understand what you should be doing instead.

1.) FALL FOR GOOD LOOKS

Great looks don’t necessarily mean a tried & true partner that will take you through the life of your company. Make sure the software has useful features that will have an impact on the day-to-day operations of your firm. Detail out what you need to accomplish with the new staffing software and make sure that all of your major concerns are addressed. Your list should contain “bread & butter” features. Avoid “pie in the sky” wish list items that no software vendor will have. Please don’t leave the choice to the outside software consultant that you hired. Get involved with the decision. This is one of the most common mistakes in staffing software, as it only takes one or two stakeholders being wowed by flashy aesthetics to get the whole company on course for a lot of headaches.

2.) GET THE CHEAPEST ONE

We all like to save money but as with everything else, you get what you pay for. If you see a vendor’s pricing is far apart from another there has to be a reason why. Usually, that reason is that you will not receive the same value, whether that value difference comes from missing features, lackluster support, or general technical issues. Often there are hidden costs that crop up later. Vendors do offer promotions from time to time, but crazy pricing is usually a bad sign. No one can afford to hire expensive developers to continue to improve the product and senior support people that will give you superior service, if they are giving their products and services away. There will be a missing piece somewhere. Why take a chance on the cheapest staffing software when your company depends on it?

3.) PLUG & PLAY

A successful software installation and data migration takes planning, but of course, one of the common mistakes in staffing software implementation is assuming that this will go smoothly without a lot of effort put in upfront. Put together an internal team that will work with your vendor project manager closely. Choose people who are intimately familiar with day-to-day operations. Do not involve the entire company unless you are a very small company and everyone is a key player. It is a mistake to hand over implementation and data conversion to someone who does not understand the business need; or leave it to the vendor to make all of your decisions! Important planning will be overlooked and you will be scrambling on live day to get your work done. This common mistake in staffing software comes from a good place, as you’d like to assume that everyone involved knows the ins and outs, but even the best vendor won’t have all of the insight necessary to guarantee a successful launch. The foundation is critical. Choices that you make in implementation will be with you throughout the years that you are using the staffing software. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you will get to it “later” when you are less busy. You will never get back to it and if you do it will be more difficult to change. Avoid living with inconveniences. Make good decisions and get it right initially, and you’ll save yourself a ton of inconvenience at several points down the road.

4.) SKIMP ON TRAINING

When vendors list training on their proposal, they are recommending the minimum number of days you will need in order to learn the software proficiently. If you reduce the amount of time spent training, you will be receiving less training than what you need. Every staffing software suite is different, especially from industry to industry, and feature-rich enterprise-level software will have a lot of capabilities that you will not be able to learn ad-hoc, no matter how intuitive the software or even if you have a team of rocket scientists working for you (ok maybe if you have rocket scientists) but no one else! Take the training already. When you invest in new staffing software you are not just paying the software fees. You are acclimating your entire company to a new way of doing business. That’s important enough to make sure you can use it.

5.) SKIP THE POLICY MANUAL

Often overlooked is the Software Policy Manual. This is a short booklet that instructs your team on how you want them to use the software. One all-encompassing e-book for everyone or one for each department works equally well. Your choice should reflect how large your organization is and how tasks are managed. What should it include? Basic workflow on how to use the system for all of the major tasks. Include what codes you want to be used, what data must be entered (set fields to “required” if your software allows it), and best practices. Don’t forget to include a few pages on the rules for social media. It is best to define what can be posted regarding your company on social media before an employee posts something that causes an issue.

6.) NEVER LOOK AT REPORTS

Unless you analyze the data that is being processed in your software solution, you will not have an understanding of how it is being used. Measure use by producing reports divided by employee so that you can gauge who is using it correctly. Staffing software is supposed to help manage your business and give you information on performance and profitability. Data walks away. Make sure you keep what is yours even if employees leave.

It’s a surprisingly common mistake in staffing software implementation to assume that the initial implementation is the end of the work that will need to go into it. The reports produced create a lot of the value of the staffing software, but if this information is not entered, or you don’t look at it, you’re missing that value. If it is not in the system, it didn’t happen.

7.) IGNORE SECURITY

Please don’t let everyone share passwords or even worse, give everyone the same password. Make sure employees change their passwords periodically. Restrict access to social security numbers and other sensitive data. Restrict folder and system file access. Select a designated and trusted system administrator. If you are cloud-based, check with your vendor to see where your data center is and what tier the datacenter is ranked. Tier 4 is the most secure type and features a host of benefits such as weatherproofing (you don’t want your data blown away in a tornado); TV cameras; 24-hour guards; secured cages; backup power generators; SSA16 compliance, anti-virus measures and more. This ties back into the first and second common mistakes in staffing software we spoke about in this article, as the choice of vendors comes alongside the choice of software.

It may sound overkill, but in the age of hackers, you can never be too safe when it comes to data access. Find out how often backups are taken and how many days of backups are secured before they get overwritten. Learn who has access to your data and what protocols must be followed in relation to your data. Remember, you are handing over your data, which is the lifeblood of your company. Losing all of your data could put you out of business! Never just assume “everything is being handled and safe”. Every staffing software vendor and every cloud-hosting provider would like to put forth the image of safety and security, but without the right questions, you’ll never know how safe your data truly is. Remember all of these precautions cost money so if your solution is really inexpensive it may be good to ask some questions. You don’t want to find out your cloud is actually in an unsecured regular office building or someone’s garage.

The key takeaway here, of course, is that careful planning is paramount to a staffing software implementation. The biggest common mistake in staffing software is ignoring details or assuming they’ll be handled at a later date, and this mistake manifests in quite a few different ways. By avoiding these common mistakes, you’re paving the way for long-term success and a maximized investment in your software, whichever you choose to use for your company. In staffing, efficiency is everything, and a well-executed implementation allows for a more efficient operation.

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